In today’s increasingly networked world, IT is at the heart of a company.If it stops “beating”, almost nothing works anymore – that means u. a. no data query, no delivery of goods, no telephone support and no remote maintenance. A scenario that the IT managers at the headquarters of Philips Austria GmbH do not even want to imagine. And so the server room at the new company headquarters in the Euro Plaza Office Park was protected from possible failures according to all the rules of modern “hedging art”. Around 80 RCDs from Eaton are also part of this overall composition, which is equipped with several redundancies.
Background of the server room project at Philips Austria
It is well known that prevention is the best medicine. And at Philips, the topic of healthcare plays a major role in several respects. After all, the Dutch company is one of the market leaders not only in the areas of consumer lifestyle and lighting, but also in healthcare. Philips’ general focus is “Innovation that matters to you”. In medical technology, this motto is reflected in products such as the world’s fastest high-performance computed tomography scanner or in X-ray solutions implemented with a significantly reduced radiation exposure, which nevertheless deliver razor-sharp images.
Challenge for the server room project
In the case of high-tech devices used in emergency medicine, among other things, one thing is clearly to be avoided at all costs: failure.” As a result, our customer support team must be able to access it immediately via appropriate remote maintenance channels if one of our systems actually needs support during an operation,” emphasizes Walter Cerny, Multi Site Service Delivery Manager at Philips. And regardless of whether voltage peaks, thunderstorms or fault current – all processes currently running on a total of 25 physical and about the same number of virtual servers at Philips Austria must be maintained under all circumstances.
Solution for the IT infrastructure at Philips in Vienna
The most important consumers – e.g. the data servers, the access system to the development area, the complete IT monitoring, important service sockets and much more – were equipped with their own circuits secured via digital RCD/LS in order to ensure the highest possible level of reliability. In addition, potential-free contacts were installed as a status indicator in order to receive a message as soon as one of them is defective for devices that are supplied via two power supplies. Whether everything is really in the green zone can also be seen from the digital RCD/LS itself. Finally, this protection device is known for its powerful LED warning system, which lights up green, yellow or red depending on the level of the residual current measured in its area of responsibility. This avoids unwanted shutdowns.
Result: A reliable data center solution for Philips Austria
“The difference between harmless and critical fault currents is recognized, too close to the tripping threshold is immediately indicated and an unjustified switching action is prevented by the Type G characteristic,” says Josef Frühwirth, Managing Director of EPS Electric Power Systems GmbH and recognized expert for Data Center Infrastructure Solutions (DCIS) / data center complete solutions as well as server room and IT infrastructures, listing some of those points, which, in his opinion, make the digital RCBO from Eaton the perfect “maintainer” of stable computer circuits. Since any system weaknesses are immediately revealed by the digital FI/LS, it is now possible for Philips employee Walter Cerny and his team to take appropriate preventive measures before things become really critical.
Place:
Vienna, Austria
Branch:
Healthcare, Consumer Lifestyle
and Lighting
Task:
Planning and construction of a new, completely redundant, fail-safe server room
Solution:
Around 80 digital RCDs ensure reliable protection of the existing computer circuits
Result:
Higher system availability due to an early warning system that allows appropriate preventive measures to be taken before it becomes critical
Contact:
Peter Reisinger
Sales Manager at EPS
peter.reisinger@eps.at
